Recently, the blitz to push DVD to the home in time for Christmas has been relentless. Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and many other big names have been advertising DVD technology like crazy. Right now, they are aiming towards the home market for television entertainment; movies and the like. Soon these companies will need to focus their attention on increasing the presence of DVD in computers once it gains a foothold near VCRs everywhere.

Since DVD technology is in its infancy, its potential for revolutionizing the computing world is currently under-appreciated. Right now, the video and audio quality of DVD movies is stunning. Even more interesting is the amount of storage space on one DVD disc - theoretically up to 17GB (between the two sides.) Series of movies can be contained on one disc instead of separate ones. Soundtracks in multiple languages are included. Even with all of these things, there is still ample room to spare on the disc.

Here is where opportunities are plentiful for any company wishing to sell products with DVD. Companies can offer movies and games on the same disc. For instance, the enhanced version of the Star Wars Trilogy was the highest-grossing box office hit this year. Why not offer the Trilogy and a handful of LucasArts games to consumers, conveniently packed all on one disc. Sure, you might pay a little more, but you're getting your money's worth. X-Wing v.s. Tie Fighter, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, and Shadows of the Empire would be a great combination along with the movies. Just picture it now: watch an episode of the Trilogy and then join in the action by playing one of the games! No matter how you look at it, combining games and movies on DVD is a wonderful fusion of media.

Since storage space on a DVD isn't a problem, many products from the same series of games could be bundled onto one disc. This would save packaging and disc-production and labeling costs. Id Software's bundle could easily fit onto a disc, along with all of the support files, editors, levels, and accessories for each of the games. Also, DVD can change the way games are installed - by not installing them. Key OS files would only be copied to the hard drive while the uncompressed games would be run right off the disc. This would let gamers be able to play any game at any time because much less hard drive space would be needed. Running games in this way would be a welcome solution for those with relatively few megabytes to spare on a hard disk.

DVD technology can revolutionize personal computing as we know it; it just needs a chance to prove itself. As more and more people switch to DVD, it will become a standard within the industry which will then be a catalyst for change. Many of us remember what happened to Beta video. Let's hope that doesn't happen to DVD.

Back to Liquid Crystal main page

Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.